Developers' Diaries: Ground Forces Modifications

Salute, pilots and tankers!

Today we’re going to talk about the modifications within the War Thunder ground forces. Like aircraft modifications, tank modifications are split into 3 groups: “Mobility”, “Protection” and “Firepower”.

Let’s take a look at the specific groups:

“Mobility”

Modifications in the “Mobility” group will improve the efficiency of engine, suspension and transmission areas of a ground force unit. You can see the modifications here:

Filters - washing and cleaning of air, oil and fuel filters increases the engine power and capacity.

Brake System - maintenance and adjustment of the tank braking system increases braking efficiency. This will allow better control of turns and reduces the radius of a turn.

Transmission - maintenance of transmission components, replacement of friction elements and nodes, lubrication in a gear box and adjustment of control rods. These will improve tank handling ability, and decrease power loss in the transmission and final drives.

Engine - engine gear train and replacement in a worn engine with a new one.

“Protection”

Modifications within this group allow the installation of additional protective elements, like spare tracks or field-made armour and shielding from available materials. Also, you can improve the stealth elements of your tank, which may help to avoid early detection at long distances or spotting from above:

Camouflage - tank camouflage improves stealth in the field and decreases detection range by enemy tanks and aviation.

Add-on armour - use of spare tracks or other alternate materials as additional armour. It slightly increases tank protection but also - its weight.

“Firepower”

Modifications of a vehicles “Firepower” will affect the tank’s armament, turret movement and precision of fire. The following modifications are available in this group:

Adjustment of Fire - gun calibration. Eliminates errors of misalignment between the gun and the target, improves firing accuracy.

Turret Drive - maintenance and lubrication of the turret traversing mechanism, lubrication of ball-bearing turret ring. These manipulations improve the smoothness of movement with turret traverse, slightly increasing its speed. This modification allows easier tracking of the target in combat.

Artillery Support – allows the requesting of a call for fire on an indicated square. This modification is available only for light and medium tanks.

New types of shells - every tank and SPG has several types of historically accurate unlockable shells. Different types of shells for one gun were invented during all periods of WWII, which is why different tanks with similar cannons may have different loads of shells. For example, the early Soviet T-34 medium tank armed with 76mm gun didn’t have armour-piercing and HE anti-tanks shells, which were invented later in 1943-1944, but these types of shells are available for later modifications of T-34 armed with the same 76mm gun.

So, this is basically how the modifications for War Thunder ground units work currently. We are planning many more modifications and modules that improve the agility and the dynamics of our ground units, these will help to protect your vehicle and, of course, improve its combat abilities. We are at the very beginning of our long and broad ground unit route, but we’re on the full throttle already and nothing will stop us! Onwards to Battle, War Thunder tankers!